witching hour
/ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/
"witching-hour" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“witching hour” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunat...
Corpus desk
Index EN-witching-hour · witching hour · English
witching hour · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | witching hour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “witching hour” in English
Rare enough to double-check
witching hour is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈwɪt͡ʃɪŋ ˌaʊə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
witching hour has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the… The correct English form is witching hour, spelled W-I-T-C-H-I-N-G- -H-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1Often preceded by the: midnight, when witches and other supernatural beings were thought to be active, and to which bad luck was ascribed; also (generally), the middle of the night, when unfortunate things are thought more likely to occur; the dead of night.
- 2A time of day, usually in the early evening, when babies and young children are more fretful and likely to cry or fuss.
- 3The final hour of trading each month during which certain stock options expire, leading to a higher trading volume and greater price volatility.
- 4The hour between 3:00 and 3:59 a.m., associated with demons.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how witching hour appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I wanted to get home before the witching hour.
Tis novv the very vvitching time of night, / VVhen Churchyards yavvne, and hell it ſelfe breakes out / Contagion to this vvorld: […]
Etymology
From witching (“of or pertaining to witchcraft or sorcery, or to witches or sorcerers”, adjective) + hour. Sense 1 (“midnight”) was popularized by the reference to the “witching time of night” in the play Hamlet (written c. 1599–1602; published 1603) by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616): see the quotation.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.